Jennifer, Gord, and their six-month old son Jasper were in East Sooke a couple weeks ago visiting family. They had me along for a documentary family photography session at the beach at East Sooke Park and then some time at their family’s home nearby. I don’t typically do family portraits, so I was thrilled that they wanted to do a session documenting an actual day in their lives. Jasper is a very lively and expressive baby – it was actually tough to get him to stop looking at the camera (babies just don’t understand photojournalism). The weather was perfect and I had a lot of fun. I’d love to do some more sessions like these.

I got to do some family portraits for my old friend Marsha. What do you get when you cross two beautiful people? The most absurdly adorable kid you’ve ever seen. Two year olds are the most hyper kids ever. I don’t know how family portrait photographers do it.

I went home to Niagara Falls to visit my parents for Thanksgiving and got to see Marsha for the first time in about a year and a half.  Claudia was just crawling around then and now she can’t stop running around.   She totally loved the camera and had endless energy.  We took these photos at a park on Lake Ontario in St. Catharines, and let Claudia have at the playground at the end.

Claude hired me from Winnipeg to take some family portraits in Victoria, when he came to visit his new grandchild.  It’s always interesting to finally meet people at their portrait sessions when I hadn’t met them before.  This whole family (and their dog) was very friendly and fun.  They didn’t want traditional “gathering around a rock” family portraits and had a bunch of great ideas of their own.  The sun was a bit harsh that day, but I tried to use it to my advantage.  I’m actually a big fan of bright white skies and sun flare.  And I love getting that sparkling ocean in my photos.